What Now?
by Hvitr istalri
Summary: Max wonders what next? After everything seems to be over, she doesn't know what to do! Bad summary, I know. R&R please! My first fanfic
1. Chapter 1

**A/N This is my first fanfic so R&R please! WARNING Do not read this untill you have read all 6 Max Ride books!**

**Due to the fact that I am not James Patterson, I do not own any of the Maximum Ride characters.**

***Max's POV***

Ahhh... There was nothing in the world more relaxing than lying on the beach, listening to the sounds of the ocean, a calm breeze blowing all your worries awa-

"Gazzy! Give it back!" shouted Iggy as he ran past me, kicking sand all over my last clean shirt. "Hey!" I shouted. "Whats the big idea?"

"Gazzy stole my ipod!" yelled Iggy. Gazzy laughed maniacly. "If you want it back, you'd better come catch me!" He said in a sing-song voice. Well, at least it was his own voice. He had caused enough trouble with that mimicry power of his.

I sighed. I really needed to get that kid a hobby.

"Gazzy! Give Iggy's ipod back or i will come do it for you!" I demanded. Still giggling, Gazzy handed Iggy his ipod. I settled back onto the sand. Good thing I've got this leader buisness down pat or the flock would be in some _serious_ trouble.

Not that I didn't think they could survive on their own, but there would be...problems. Iggy and Gazzy with their bickering and their endless fascination with blowing stuff up, and dont even get me started on Angel. Really.

But I love them for the little nuts that they are. Nudge is my little trooper, always looking on the bright side. And Fang...Oh, darn. I had almost avoided thinking about him for 10 minutes. Ever since he left. Ever since the note.

Oooh, the note, scary music, right? But it _was_ scary. I was shell-shocked. Right after I had gotten over almost losing him, I had to go and lose him again. God! Stupid, stupid Fang! He just _had_ to go and leave me alone, with only some soppy, heartbreakingly beautiful note to think about.

Dylan had tried to be comforting. He really did. He was super nice, and he was always there when something needed doing, stuff that really eased my mind. But he wasnt Fang.

I opened my eyes. _Well,_ I told myself, _time to stop being all self-pitying and put on your happy face._ I got up and shook the sand off my clothes.

"Okay guys, listen up," I said. "We've had our relaxation time, swim time, etc., ect." They really enjoyed playing underwater tag now that they all had devloped gills. Yes, gills. The having-a-evil-scientist-mess-with-your-DNA package comes with the random mutation feature!

Well, at least we hadn't started growing multiple appendages. Yet.

"Well," I continued. "We need to head over to the house, check on Total and Akila. Hopefully, they haven't destroyed the place while we were gone."

"Oh, come on!" complained the Gasman. "Five more minutes! Please?" He tried to give me bambi eyes.

"Sorry Gaz, bambi eyes doesn't work for you. But okay, fine. _Five minutes_, only. Then we're off."

* * *

We landed on the porch. Gazzy, Iggy, and Angel yawned in unison. It was a short flight from Aliso Beach, California, but we were tired from a day of fun in the sun. Dylan was there to greet us.

"Hello, Max," he said. He smiled, his beautiful face lighting up when he saw me. "Hello, Dylan," I said tiredly. I brushed past him and walked into the kitchen. I was still angry at him for giving Fang the idea to leave. Well, I was going to focus on that later. My stomach growling so loud, I wondered in I had accidentaly swallowed a chainsaw on the flight over here.

"Iggy! Are you too tired to whip up something to sooth my angry stomach?" I yelled over my shoulder.

Iggy sighed theatrically. "Well, I guess I'd better make something or _you_ will. I would hate for us all to end this wonderful day with food poisoning." Gazzy snickered.

I glared at him. Like that would have any effect. "You'd better be glad I'm too tired to throw something sharp at you," I retorted.

"Okay, okay, I give up!" He laughed.

* * *

After Iggy's wonderful dinner, we were all relaxing in the living room. Iggy was listening to his ipod, and Dylan, Gazzy, Angel, and Nudge were playing Monopoly. I was...sitting. Thinking. What now? What do we do?

All my life, I've had objectives. Things I had to do. Back at the school, it was to survive. We had to just survive for the longest time. But then, along comes all this saving the world buisness. All the while, I kept the flock together, kept us safe. But lately, everything has been falling apart. New bird kid, the flock kicking me out, Fang dieing, Fang coming back, Fang leaving. All this, well most of it anyway, had to do with Fang. Fang is always there for me.

_Was_ always there for me.

You know who else was with me most of the time? The Voice. _Well Voice_, I said in my head. _Where are you now? Tell me what to do! _Silence. Well, what did I expect? The Voice to tell me where Fang is, help me save the world, and tell me how to turn lead into gold?

Nah, not really. Then why was I so disappointed?

Just then, all the windows implodes. Everyone leapt up. Erasers started pouring in. _What? I thought they were all gone!_

"Oh! You should have called. I didn't even have time to clean up," I said politely. Immediately, I jumped into action. I ducked under an Eraser's punch and grabbed his wrist. I ran him out one of the windows overlooking the canyon. I whirled around and saw Dylan whaling on an Eraser, forcing him back torwards the canyon windows. Gazzy and Angel had ganged up on another Eraser, also pulling him torward the windows. Iggy was in a similar fight.

I realized that they had already gone through this once before. _Talk about deja vu, _I thought.

I leapt over the couch, kicking an Eraser in the process. It crumpled to the ground, unmoving. It seemed to me that these thing are were more fragile than I remembered. The Eraser in front of me took a step forward. His foot hit the ground and I hears a soft _crunch._

"OH NO YOU DIDN'T!" I heard Iggy yell. I looked down. The monster had crushed Iggy's ipod.

"Oooh, you've done it now," I told the Eraser. Iggy came out of nowhere and tackled the Eraser, shoving him into the wall. He punched it once, hard, then shoved it out the window. I looked around. The room was a wrek, but all the Erasers were gone.

Gazzy wiped the stinking Eraser blood off his face and said,"I guess they didn't know we don't take being suprised very well."

I laughed. "No, Gazzy. Not very well at all."

* * *

**A/N So, what do you think? This is my first, so help me out! Should I continue or abandon this story? Please R&R! **


	2. Chapter 2

Hey! Well, here's chapter 2! Would have been out sooner but the editing thingy stopped working and my piece...needed editing.

**Thanks to Frostpaw and DeathAngels1996 for the first two reviews! :D**

***Max's POV***

After the Eraser attack, we were sitting in the kitchen, bandaging our various wounds. The living room still smelled like Erasers, and believe me, that is _not _a good thing.

"Everyone okay?" I asked. They all nodded. Total was upset with himself. During the fight, he was off somewhere with Akila, having a good time. He was angry because he wasn't there to "protect" us.

Don't get me wrong, Total is an excellent dog, a good friend. But I think that I've spent my whole life protecting myself, and I could do it a little better than he could."It's okay, Total," I said. "It isn't your fault. You had no idea the Erasers were coming."

Iggy had a sprained wrist and a few bruises, but other that that he was okay. Well, he had yet to get over the loss of his ipod, but I told him we could get another and he brightned up, somewhat.

Nudge had cuts and bruises, nothing major. Same with Gazzy and Angel. My knuckles were red and raw, and I had a nice bruise on my ribs, but mainly we all escaped serious injury. Thank God for that.

I stood up. " Okay, guys," I began. "We need to get moving, clear out. When those monsters don't check in with whatever wack-job that made them, they might bump things up a notch. Did you guys realize that those Erasers had no wings? How did they get up here?" Blank looks. "Well, come on then, lets go!"

We stood up. "But where?" Nudge asked. "Good question," I said. I hadn't really thought of that."Any ideas?"

Iggy shrugged. Gazzy was occupied with a scab on his thumb and didn't even look up. Nudge was staring with horror at a new-found rip in her shirt. "I have an idea, Max," said Angel.

"We should go to New York."

I realized that her and the Voice had said that at the same time. _Well hello there,_ I thought._ Long time no hear. Why do you think we should go to New York?_ I asked Angel the same question out loud.

"It's just a feeling, Max. Maybe we should go check up on the Institute there." _See if they are still active,_ said the Voice. I sighed.

"New York it is."

* * *

We touched down in Unger Park, Whitetail, Montana. It was just a pit-stop before we headed to New York again. "I'm hungry," said Gazzy. "Yeah, me too," added Nudge. "Okay, you guys stay here while I find a Minimart and get us something," I told them. "Uh, should I go by my self or... Dylan, Iggy, do one of you guys wanna come? We'll get dome faster," I said.

"I'll go," offered Dylan immeadiately. Of course.

_Barbecue, barbecue, barbecue, _I repeated in my head so I wouldn't forget. Nudge had requested them specially. I had already gotten six packs of hot dogs, two twelve-packs of coke, and hot dog buns. Dylan was picking up some lighter fluid amd matches. We met up at the checkout line thingy and I paid for our food.

When we got outside, I tied the grocery bags closed and Dylan and I divided the weight. Good thing it was dark out, I did't want anyone to freak out after seeing giant bird-things carrying groceries.

We landed at the camp. Iggy had produced a pack of cards, and they were all playing rummy.

"Hey guys," I said. "Got the food. But we are going to have to leave the camp 'cause we can't light a fire here." Groaning about their hunger, they reluctantly got up and began flying towards the outskirts of town.

We found a nice grove of oaks and decided to stop there. I built a fire and lit it with the stuff we bought at the Minimart. We all started roasting out hotdogs. The aroma drifting from the cooking hot dogs was so enticing, I don't know howI managed to wait until my hot dog was fully cooked before I wolfed it down. I think the others felt the same way.

After the food, we all headed up into a tree to catch some shut-eye. As I have said before, as funny as that would be, none of us have ever fallen out of a tree before. We usually sleep in them, and I could remember one time we actually got caught sleeping in them by the police.

I sighed. _Ahh, memories._

* * *

I woke with a start. I had been dreaming that Fang had come back, that we were together again-but then he faded and was replaced by Dylan. Eeew.

I looked up above me expecting to see the sky framed by oak branches but instead there was-

_A giant crane?_

I looked around wildly. All flock members accounted for, sleeping on the ground around me. I started shaking them awake, all the while trying to figure out where we were and how we got there.

I realized we were at a construction site. It was deserted, empty.

"Wha- whats goin on?" asked the Gasman as he blinked the sleep from his eyes.

"I'm not sure, Gazzy. Just hang tight, I'm gonna find out." I replied.

I walked in a circle around where we woke up. From what I could see, we were alone. I had a killer headache, we must have been drugged so we could be moved without waking. But why? By who?

_Now would be a good time to chime in, Voice, _I thought. As usual, the Voice chose to remain silent and stubborn. "Max, where are we?"asked Iggy. I felt sorry for him. As bad as it was for us to wake up in a completely different place, it was a million times worse for him.

"I don't know, Ig." I examained my surroundings more closely. There was a giant crane to my left and a big steel construction covered with scaffolding to my right. In front of me was a big pit and a cement mixer. You do the math.

Suddenly, the cement mixer started up, and I heard heavy footsteps behind me. I turned. The flock was in full battle mode, ready to jump on anything that moved. When I looked around, I saw why.

We were surrounded by Erasers.

I cracked my knuckes. This could get messy. I was about to attack when the Erasers parted. I heard a familiar voice say,

"Not so fast, Maximum. I need to talk to you."

* * *

**Ooooh, Cliffanger! I'll tell you, major situation in the next chapter! Hey, and don't forget to R&R, people!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3, yay! Time for some more action! Sorry, its a short chapter. My birthday is tomorrow, and my friends are over today, didn't want to spend too much time on the computer...**

**DeathAngels1996-Very funny! The bubblegum was a nice touch. :D**

* * *

***Max's POV***

"Mr. Chu? Wait, I mean, _Robert?_ What are you doing here?" I snorted with laughter. "And, like, what happened to your lizard head?"

Mr. Chu didn't seem impressed by my memory. In fact, he seemed rather irritated.

"Max, I will make this short and simple. You have been a problem. A _major_ problem. We have offered you chances to work for us-"

"Work for you? _Work _for you?" I interrupted, my fury level rising by the second. "No, you wanted to sell us like furniture to the highest bidder! And if you are coming to us again with your little _offer, _then I'll give you my answer. You can take that offer and shove it up you skinny, green-"

"Now Max, no need for that," said Mr. Chu. "Please, let me finish. As I was saying, we have offered you chances to redeem yourselves, and you have refused every one. Now, we have come to take care of you troublesome mutants."

At that, I decided I'd had enough. I noticed that these Erasers had no wings either, so they couldn't follow us. I made the signal for an up-and-out but Nudge shook her head ever so slightly. I frowned at her, wondering what the problem was. She motioned torward the Erasers. I took a closer look.

All of the Erasers were armed with guns.

And I'm not talking about little pistols, they had big sub-machine guns and the like. _How did I miss that,_ I wondered.

"What do you want, Chu-chu train?" I asked. "It's simple, Max," he replied.

"I want you to die."

* * *

You know, being tied to a pole in a big muddy pit about to be filled with tons of concrete isn't as fun as you would think.

"Max, I'm scared. How are we gonna get out of this one?" Nudge whispered to me. I didn't know what to feel. You knew it was bad when one of the flock admitted to being scared.

"It'll be okay, Nudge. I've got a plan." I didn't, obviously. She gave me a weak smile. I felt terrible about lying to her, but I couldn't let her give in! We had to keep fighting, or we would never get out.

We were tied in a circle around a pole in the middle of the pit. Apparently the were going to fill the hole with cement-with us in it. I screwed my eyes shut, trying to think of a way out of this situation.

_Come on Voice, _I practically screamed in my head. _Now would be a great time to, I don't know, GET US OUT OF HERE!_ I didn't expect anything. I didn't get anything, either.

The one Eraser they left behind to operate the mixer was was watching us. Abruptly, he turned and climbed into the cab of the mixer. When he was out of sight, Iggy pressed something into my hands.

It was a knife, a medium-sized pocketknife. "Where did you get this? You know I don't like weapons," I told him. "Forget that! Just cut the ropes, I cant see," he said urgently.

I sawed off my own ropes, then I got to work on the others. The Eraser had began poring the cement. It was oozing towards us.

I was almost done, I just had to get Dylan and Gazzy untied and then we were off. But, it had taken longer than I thought. A _lot _longer. The others had flown out of the pit when I cut their bonds, but Dylan and I were still in the pit. "Hey!" I shouted up at the now free flock members. "Go turn the cement off!" They nodded and rushed to the mixer.

The cement was up to our knees, and rising quickly. "Go!" Dylan shouted over the noise of the cement mixer. I shook my head. I wasn't going to leave a member of the fl- I mean a fellow mutant behind.

"It won't turn off!" shouted Gazzy. "It's jammed!" I groaned.

My feet were cold. I tried moving them. It took all my strength to shift them a few inches. The cement was hardening. It was making it difficult to cut Dylan's bonds. "Go!" said Dylan again. I looked up at him. His eyes were desperate. Not a selfish desperate. He wanted me to get out, even if it meant that he would be covered in cement. "Just go, Max!" he screamed. The cement was now up to our chests. I looked at him one last time, his unbelievably handsome face flecked with wet cement and contorted by struggle, struggle with the cement, struggle with...me.

"Go," he whispered.

I shoved the knife into his hands and slogged out of the half-dry cement, my wings beating powerfully as I struggled to lift myself out of the deadly mixture. After a few nerve-wrecking seconds, I managed to get out of the pit. I called to the flock. We took off, flying away from the site.

"But...wheres Dylan?" asked Nudge. I stared grimly ahead. "Oh," she said softly.

* * *

**Mmm, a plot twist! But don't worry, Dylan is stronger than he looks...**

**R&R, PEOPLE!(Not you, DeathAngels1996. You've been a good little reader, yes you have!)**


End file.
